Research house Gartner has predicted that worldwide security spend will reach $96.3bn in 2018, an increase of 8% from 2017.

Gartner stated that organisations now spend more on security measures as a result of regulations, shifting buyer mind set, awareness or emerging threats and the evolution of digital business strategies.

Ruggero Contu, research director at Gartner, said: "Overall, a large portion of security spending is driven by an organisation's reaction toward security breaches as more high profile cyberattacks and data breaches affect organisations worldwide.

"Cyberattacks such as WannaCry and NotPetya, and most recently the Equifax breach, have a direct effect on security spend, because these types of attacks last up to three years."

Additionally there are other factors that contribute to higher security spends, these include regulatory compliance and data privacy. Gartner also forecasts that by 2020, more than 60% of organisations will invest in multiple data security tools such as data loss prevention, encryption and data-centric audit and protections tools.

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Furthermore Contu acknowledges that the skill shortage and technical complexity continued to threaten the security landscape. "Skill sets are scarce and therefore remain at a premium, leading organisations to seek external help from security consultants, managed security service providers and outsourcers."

He added: "In 2018, spending on security outsourcing services will total $18.5bn, an 11% increase from 2017. The IT outsourcing segment is the second-largest security spending segment after consulting."

Finally, by 2019 Gartner sees a total enterprise spending on security outsourcing services will be 75% of the spending on security software and hardware products, up from 63% in 2016.

"This increased focus on detection and response to security incidents has enabled technologies such as endpoint detection and response, and user entity and behaviour analytics to disrupt traditional markets such as endpoint protection platforms and SIEM," concluded Contu.